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On Tuesday, Peter Kevin showed me a game that he saw on Facebook (FB is good for that). It's called "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes". I guess with a title like that, how could he not be intrigued.

He showed me the article about it and told me "I think we could do really well at this". I quickly read it and disagreed strongly. "I think we will stab each other with pens. Remember hanging the insulation and sheet rock?"

While we are compatible most of the time, when there is a task to perform, we sometimes have a bit of a power struggle-unless one of us (me) decides that it's just not important enough to me to argue.

The bomb

What is this game? I hear you asking. Well, you have two stations and a few people (as few as 2 and as many as you want).

At one station, you have a computer with a program that loads a bomb. It looks like this. (and it's double sided) At the other station, you have a Defusal Manual. The hard part is that the person with the bomb is not allowed to look at the manual and the person/people with the manual are not allowed to see the bomb.

Your object is to defuse the bomb before it blows up. Sounds ok? I thought so until I read the manual. Holy cow is it hard! The starter bombs have only 3 modules and they give you 5 minutes of time. Did I forget to mention they are timed? And you only get to make so many mistakes before you go BOOM?

The modules (there are 14 different ones altogether and the computer generates a bomb for you from those 14) have to be defused by describing to the manual readers what you see. And what you see is often very hard to describe. One part is symbols. Some of them are familiar. Most are not. We made up our own names as we went along. For instance, there is one Kate called "octopus leaning on wall" and that's what is became. My favorite is "Donald Trump's comb over".

The defuser tells the group what he/she sees and they tell him/her how to defuse each module. The hard part is that the defusal manual is filled with logic problems. These are second only to Story Problems as my least favorite type of puzzle.

The manual

Since it was just our anniversary, I bought this (14.99 so if we hated it, we weren't losing much) for Pk and invited Kate and Patrick over on Wed night to play.

We had a blast (pun intended). At first look, the manual is impossible. Really. We are smart people and there was one module that took us forever to figure out. The directions are purposefully vague but eventually we figured it out. There are so many details and you don't know which ones might be important so you just tell everything.

We quickly learned who was better at which module and which ones to do first because they are easier. And we blew up. A lot.

It was a lot of fun. It's not competitive but cooperative which is a switch for an adrenaline producing game. Communication skills are important but so is being able to take in a lot of information and distill it down into the important parts. Quickly.

You can check out the manual anytime. It's a free download. The software for the bomb generator is not expensive but you do have to purchase it. (and now that I have used the words "bomb" and "defuse" so many times, I will not be surprised to be stalked by Homeland Security.....).

If you had asked me on Tuesday, I would have said, "run away!" but now, I recommend this. It's so different from any other game we've played and it's tiring to play. It's strangely satisfying to defuse a complicated bomb in the time allotted.

Other than video games, life here is good. Pk pulled a muscle connected to his "baby back ribs" (the dr's words, not mine). He's having a good deal of pain and started a course of steroids today and has to stay away from the wood shop for 3 weeks. He's not a happy camper. He's been scheming out there and thinking of Christmas. I will padlock the garage if he doesn't stay out. I want him to heal.

I am going to get out the winter clothes this weekend and put away the summer cottons. While I hate to say goodbye to the light clothes, I love the way the closets/drawers are all neat and straightened when I get finished. Saturday night we are having dinner with one of Pete's woodworking buddies and his wife who knits. I wonder how many other couples are knitter/woodworkers. Do you think crafts people are drawn to one another?

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